Median sales prices for single-family homes, condos slip in Mass.

The median pending sales prices for single-family homes and condos in Massachusetts in December were a little bit lower than than they were in December 2017, offering a very faint glimmer of hope to stressed out buyers in a seller’s market that is bucking the national trend.

For single-family homes, the median pending sales price last month was $375,000, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) reported Wednesday. That’s a 1.3 percent decrease. For condos, that figure was $352,500, reflecting a 2.1 percent drop compared with December 2017.

Another high note for buyers was the number of single-family homes that went under agreement in December: 3,122. That’s a 9.7 percent increase compared with December 2017. Pending sales have been up for the past 12 months, according to MAR.

The news wasn’t rosy for condos; 1,077 units went under agreement, a 0.6 percent drop from December 2017. Pending sales for condos have been down or flat for six of the past 12 months, the association said.

How did the market do in 2018 as a whole? Prices were up, and so were the number of pending sales.

The median pending sales price for single-family homes for the year was $392,083, a 5.3 percent increase. The number of pending sales hit 62,209, an 8.2 percent jump.

The median pending sales price for a condo for the year was $371,513, a 6.2 percent increase. The number of pending sales hit 23,265, a rise of 3.6 percent.

“One thing this high-demand market has done over the past several years is it has expanded the ‘traditional’ home buying and selling seasons to more than just the spring and fall,” said Anne Meczywor, MAR president and broker/associate at Roberts & Associates Realty in Lenox. “December was another example of buyers staying engaged in the process until they made offers that were accepted, regardless of the time of year.”